Reviewing Movies

As the show progresses it seems to get weirder and weirder. This season introduces new characters. Duke’s brother Wade, Jennifer who runs into Duke after hearing voices, and Colin Ferguson from Eureka as Audrey’s new handler. And they keep appearing. The show still centres around Lunenburg, Nova Scotia standing in for Haven Maine and the tourist bureau there is working on a map of Haven sites in town. This season the former professional wrestler who showed up last season gets elevated to police chief after Nathan falls into disrepute. Duke seems conflicted about being cast as an aid to law-enforcement. He and Nathan form a love triangle with Audrey. I was somewhat disappointed with this season since it’s still running one can ohly hope it picks up next year. Disc Four Supplements will tell you more than you ever need to know about Haven. 

There has always been an immediacy to this series as if you’d joined the officers for a ride along. The principal characters are two detectives and two sets of beat cops. One of the strengths of the show has always been the fact that these are no cut-out figures but real people with real life-issues who perform their duties despite them. These are not idealized figureheads. There are continuing story-lines rather than unconnected episodes. With the last episode it is obvious the writers knew the show had been cancelled as everyone reaps the world wind in one cataclysmic climax.

It has always been the mark of a great actor to me that I fail to recognize that he/she is the one playing a part. In the early seasons of Southland C. Thomas Howell played Lydia’s detective partner Russell who nearly died of wounds received on the job and quit the force rather than take a desk job. It was not until he was identified in a supplement on Disc 2 that I realized he was the actor playing the wrinkled, wisecracking, buffoon Dewey in later seasons. Russell makes an appearance in the final episodes meaning the make-up department was very busy.

The title appears to reference Little Red Riding-hood and the red ‘anorak’ worn by the first victim. Dates from Andrew Garfield’s days with the BBC before he hit the gym, went to Hollywood and donned spandex to play Spiderman. Shot in sinister cloudy almost greyscale light Garfield’s blonde hair is not discernible but his oversized mutton chops are quite prominent at odds with the boyish look of the rest of him. The Yorkshire accent and turns of expression take some getting used to. A murder mystery involving young school girls Garfield chain smokes, spends a lot of time in pubs, sheds his clothes and hops into bed with various women. And he uses profanity, a choir boy he ain’t. Police corruption and brutality figure conspicuously. The edition I watched forced me to watch a lengthy series of previews without jumping to the title screen and when the feature finally starts expect a minute of silence while the various producers’ logos spool across the screen. These caveats aside it’s a decent mini-series. One that kills off its principal    characters with disturbing regularity. The portrayal of police corruption is most disturbing.

Should the parents of children incapable of behaving in public inflict them on the fellow patrons in a restaurant. The fact that they do has led me to be selective in being seated at distance from parents with children. The idea that a child could throw a tantrum lasting four hours is exhausting to even conceive. Where the child finds the energy and how the parents could possibly cope.... Begs the question as to who the audience for this type of film may be. People who love horses and travel documentaries? Do you remember Warrendale? Shamanic Rituals do not translate well to film. The book gives the impression the group travelled with bulky felt yurts, what the movie shows them using are modern nylon tents. What lifts this documentary above the routine disease of the week flick is the obvious devotion of the parents to this troubled child.